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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/R47899/01
Title: Investigation of the Pulsed Magnetron Discharge by Time and Energy-Resolved Mass Spectrometry
Principal Investigator: Bradley, Professor JW
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Hiden Analytical Ltd
Department: Physics
Organisation: UMIST
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 06 November 2001 Ends: 05 December 2001 Value (£): 2,212
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Plasmas - Technological
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Electronics
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
In this short collaborative programme, we plan to carry out a detailed study of the energetics of plasma species arriving at a substrate in a pulsed magnetron discharge. Pulsed reactive and non-reactive sputtering has become a hugely important technique in the production of quality thin films and coatings, particularly optical coatings. However, knowledge of the energy and flux of the ionic and neutral species arriving at the growing film in the pulsed environment is still poor.We will development an existing commercial energy-resolved mass spectrometer (EQP 300) so that we can perform fast time resolved measurements during the pulse (1-50 kHz). A titanium target will be used, for both non-reactive (argon) and reactive (argon + oxygen, nitrogen and methane) plasmas.Of particular interest is the energy distribution, flux and relative arrival times of: i) the sputtered Ti atoms, ii) ionised sputtered material, iii) the sputtering gas background (either atomic, molecular or ionic) and iv) energetic reflected Ar atoms from the target, for different discharge powers, pressures, pulse frequencies and duty cycles.No such measurements have been published to date.
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